Healing Manipur: Why Expediting Ethnic Conflict Cases Is Crucial Before Modi’s Visit
New Delhi: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s long-pending visit to Manipur finally coming through, the north-eastern state is back in the news. In the next two days, Modi will be seen all across the national and regional media, speaking at public meetings both in violence-hit Churachandpur and Imphal.
In the run-up to his visit, the media emphasis has already been on differing reactions to Modi’s visit by the two communities at loggerheads since May 2023 – the Kukis and the Meiteis.
However, to usher in stability and peace in real terms in that border state, focus must also be directed at the status of a number of cases being probed by the Union government’s investigative agencies, particularly since the state was brought under President’s Rule this past February 13.
An impartial completion of the investigation in these cases would only help pin down what might have gone wrong in the state to paralyse it to such an extent in 2023 that it is yet to recover fully.
Impartial and speedy investigations would also help bring a sense of justice to the victims of the conflict that went on to kill hundreds, displaced tens of thousands from both communities, and virtually split the state into two along ethnic lines.
The economy of the state is in ruins today, affecting most households. The biggest casualty of the conflict, though, is the breakdown of traditional Kuki-Meitei relations, a result of which is the demand for a ‘separate administration’ for Kuki-majority areas. It will take years for these wounds to heal.
The Kanan case
Among the arrests carried out since Manipur came under Union government rule, the one that tops the list is of Ashem Kanan Singh, who was taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 7 in Imphal.
Kanan’s name among those arrested during Union government rule is significant simply because it brings to the public domain – for the first time – a strong likelihood of the direct involvement of at least a fraction of Manipur police personnel with the Arambai Tenggol (AT), the armed militia and vigilante group accused by the Kuki community of being at the forefront of the violence unleashed on them in the valley districts, including in the capital city Imphal.
Kanan, while being the powerful ‘army chief’ of the AT, was also serving as a head constable in the Manipur police. He was sacked by the state administration only after it came under President’s Rule.
Allegations against Arambai Tenggol
The AT, an ultra-nationalist militia, draws its strength from the fact that it was founded by BJP Rajya Sabha MP and the titular head of the erstwhile Manipur kingdom, L. Sanajaoba, who is seen as extremely close to the then-chief minister N. Biren Singh.
When Modi visits Imphal on Saturday (September 13), Sanajaoba will most likely be seen sharing the stage with him.
In the last two years though, there have been a number of ground reports where Sanajouba’s outfit has been accused of fomenting violence besides physically attacking opposition leaders belonging to the Meitei community, and even police personnel for trying to enforce law and order.
As per an investigative report this April, a number of residential and commercial properties belonging to Kuki residents across Imphal are still controlled by the powerful militia.
During the thick of the conflict, when Union home minister Amit Shah had told parliament that Biren Singh – also the state’s home minister then – was ‘cooperating’ with New Delhi to bring the law and order situation under control, that a top leader of Arambai Tenggol like Kanan was simultaneously serving in the ranks of the state police force only adds weight to the accusations of the victims of the violence that the police force was partial.
The two victims of sexual assault belonging to the Kuki community had alleged that they were refused protection by two police personnel sitting in a police vehicle while a mob belonging to the Meitei community was on a rampage.
AT cadres, seen openly carrying arms in police vehicles in valley areas, were also accused of looting arms and ammunition from the state armoury. A large swathe of state-owned arms is yet to be traced in spite of state governor Ajay Bhalla giving a public call for their return after Manipur was brought under direct Union government rule.
Kanan’s arrest and its effect
On the evening of June 7, when the CBI detained Kanan, feared in Imphal as the powerful ‘army chief’ of the AT, it raised eyebrows as it became the first such act by the government against an important leader of the militia whose writ run like none others’ in valley areas since the ethnic conflict broke out in May 2023.
No wonder then that protests erupted on the streets of Imphal that evening itself, with its cadres as well as political activists demanding Kanan’s immediate release. Fearing escalation of the protests, the state administration under Bhalla imposed prohibitory orders and suspended internet and mobile services across five valley districts.
On the evening of June 7 itself, a CBI team rushed 46-year-old Kanan to the Imphal airport where he was formally arrested, even as the protest turned violent with participants resorting to burning public property in the city.
Immediately after his arrest, he was flown to Guwahati. On June 8, he was produced before the court of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) of Kamrup Metro.
As per the CBI’s formal submission in the local court that day, “local people agitated and the CBI personnel were also attacked and the situation went beyond their control and somehow they could manage to escape”.
In such a situation, the arrest memo and other documents had to be sent to his immediate family through WhatsApp messages.
A delegation of 25 Meitei MLAs and one MP also rushed to the Raj Bhavan on June 8 to ask why the leader of the militia was arrested. Coming out of the governor’s house, Ibomcha Singh, the spokesperson for the BJP, and O. Surja Kumar, a BJP MLA, told the waiting reporters though that Kanan was arrested “not for being a member of the Arambai Tenggol” but in connection with a “personal case” and “a separate case of the CBI”.
Kanan’s background
Kanan’s links to the Manipur police came to the public domain only on the morning of June 9, when the state police stated on X that:
“Ashem Kanan Singh (46) was arrested by CBI in Imphal. He was a Head Constable in Manipur Police till he was terminated from service on 3rd March 2025 for his involvement in various criminal activities, including cross-border smuggling of arms. He was arrested for his criminal activities which includes several acts of grave nature and involvement of unlawful activities and criminal cases registered against him….”
Its post on social media at once gained immense significance when juxtaposed against the fact that Kanan was also simultaneously the ‘army chief’ of a militia accused of being at the forefront of the ethnic conflict and also for looting arms from the state armoury.
Upon further enquiry, it had turned out that Kanan was kept under suspension for his alleged role in an arms-smuggling case registered in Moreh in 2020, but was reinstated under Biren Singh as home minister during the ethnic conflict.
“He was brought back to the Manipur police in October 2023,” said a state police official.
Only in March 2025, barely weeks after President’s Rule was clamped on Manipur, was Kanan terminated from service citing his “involvement in various criminal activities including cross-border smuggling of arms”. His sacking cleared the decks for his subsequent arrest.
Top sources in the state police said: “There were prior charges against him in the Moreh arms case, but the reason he came under the radar during President’s Rule was the attack carried out at the house of Imphal East additional superintendent of police Amit Singh on February 28 [2024]. At least 200 armed cadres of the Arambai Tenggol had barged into his house, kidnapped him and brutally beaten him up. He was later released. It is strongly suspected that Kanan was among the group.” Then, in March this year, “his services were terminated”.
‘Prior charges’
Kanan was in the local news in 2020 too. As per those reports, a crew of police from the state’s Moreh police station had apprehended Kanan on June 13, 2020 “with arms and ammunition”. Kanan was then posted in the Imphal East Reserve Line.
“There is a system within the Manipur police whereby a section of police personnel are on reserve and they along with their official vehicles are sent to faraway districts like Moreh and Jiribam on rotation basis, just to aid the local police. That was how Kanan would be sent to Moreh from Imphal East district; there he apparently got involved in arms smuggling with a local Kuki man,” a senior state police officer from Imphal East told this correspondent.
According to a June 15, 2020 Sangai Express report, the Moreh police and the Moreh Commandos in a joint operation arrested a person belonging to the Kuki community, identified as Khaijamang Touthang, and seized from his possession “six numbers of US-made 4th Generation Glock 21 pistol[s] and one pistol of Smith & Wesson M&P Bodyguard 380”.
Moreh, in the state’s Tengnoupal district, borders the international boundary with Myanmar. Further enquiry into the case led the Moreh police to pick up Kanan for interrogation.
On June 12, 2020, Biren Singh, then the chief minister and the home minister, took to social media to congratulate the Moreh police for the seizure; he gave out the complete list of arms and ammunition and other things hauled during the raid. A case was filed under FIR No 52 (6) 2020 MR-PS Moreh.
Though accused of smuggling “arms and ammunition”, Kanan was not formally arrested, said the police official. “Instead, he was suspended to be followed by a departmental enquiry”.
“Kanan continued to be suspended till he was brought back to service in October 2023.”
The status of the Moreh case
Moreh court orders showed that the Kuki person arrested in the case was denied bail for close to a year. He was finally granted bail in February 2021.
Around that time, the case was also forwarded to the Imphal West sessions court. “A chargesheet was filed in the case by the Moreh police on December 11, 2021. But we are not sure at the moment whether that chargesheet was submitted to the prosecution directorate to be handed over to the court,” said a reliable source at the Moreh police station.
Interestingly, senior police officer Amit Singh, who was kidnapped by the AT from his Imphal residence in February last year, was then the additional superintendent of police of Moreh.
“Kanan continued to be suspended also because the chargesheet had named him,” the sources claimed.
Sections under which Kanan was arrested
Though the BJP delegation had told local reporters on June 8 that Kanan was arrested not for being a leader of the AT and thereby could have insinuated that his arrest had nothing to do with the ethnic conflict, the charges brought against him by the CBI, however, indicated offences linked to the conflict; as does the line of allegations mounted against the cadres of the outfit.
For instance, the CBI investigating officer’s submission to the CJM’s court on June 8 had said Kanan was accused under sections 143 (unlawful assembly); 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon); 447 (criminal trespass, entering or occupying other’s property with an intent to commit an offence or intimidate, insult or annoy the lawful owner of the property); 384 (extortion); 380 (theft committed in a building, tent or vessel used for human dwelling or property custody) of the IPC, besides section 25 (1-B) of the Arms Act (illegal acquisition, possession or carrying of firearms and ammunition) and sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Damages to Public Property Act (mischief causing damage to public property by fire or explosive device).
Though the state police in its X post had said he was terminated from service for “his involvement in various criminal activities, including cross-border smuggling of arms” and that he was “arrested for his criminal activities which includes several acts of grave nature”, he was not charged under any stringent section for likely compromising national security.
Satisfied with the allegations brought against him by the CBI though, the Guwahati lower court had remanded Kanan to five days’ police custody on June 8, asking the police to produce him on June 13.
Currently, Kanan is lodged in a Guwahati jail and is produced periodically before the court as per law.
Kanan’s arrest is just one among several such cases, which also involve persons from the Kuki community. With little media focus on such cases, information about their progress or lack thereof in the public domain is too little. For investigating agencies and the judiciary to bring these cases to their logical end in a timely manner will likely instill fear of the law among the law-breakers in the state.
Late as it already is, the prime minister’s visit to Manipur can work only if the victims of the conflict on both sides of the divide feel a sense of justice done to their perpetrators, and when it is ensured that they can go back home with a sense of trust in the efficacy of the police force.
To arrive at that, cases like that of Kanan must be expedited by Shah’s ministry.
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